Is the proposed AIS tent arena just another castle in the air?

The one thing that we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.

In the early 1960s I was demonstrating power tools at the Canberra Show in a huge tent.

A brief storm blew up and the tent apex lifted off the centre pole. The pole moved slightly and the unreinforced fabric was pierced by the pole top as the tent settled back down.

The tent tore in two and collapsed. There was much damage but fortunately few injuries. My display stall was destroyed as was a sewing machine display beside me.

Not just this incident, but also the recent Tasmanian jumping castle tragedy, should be sounding alarm bells for this project. Or, better, sounding the death knell for what is an unsafe and short-sighted off-the-cuff suggestion.

This made news in The Canberra Times the next morning.

I understand Coles have teamed with Wing to deliver items via drone in Canberra and elsewhere.

Being part of the initial drone delivery trial in Bonython was a negative experience for my family and many other residents.

The searing noise, the loss of birdlife, the distressed cats, dogs and horses were all consequences. Hence the establishment of our Bonython action group, its petition to the ACT government and the resulting Legislative Assembly inquiry.

Allowing the expansion of delivery drones into more suburbs will not be without its costs. We may get a few cars taking less road trips, but then that traffic will be transferred via drones to our beautiful, clear, and quiet skies.

Do Canberrans realize what we are in the process of losing? Is this the beginning of the end of our unique bush capital?

The proposal to make both the red-top bin and the yellow-top bin collection only once a fortnight outlined in your recent online readers' survey will be a catalyst for even more roadside, shopping centre, or neighbour's bin rubbish-dumping.

Will there be larger bins on request for big families? When my red-top bin was replaced after the handle broke, the new one had shrunk.

Confronted with the effects of climate change, including unprecedented droughts, fires and floods, the most important feature of the soon-to-be-legislated "outcomes-based" ACT Territory Plan is to increase the rights given to developers.

With one disaster quickly following another, you would think the priorities of the new plan would include low emissions housing, community infrastructure and disaster resilient suburbs, more green space and trees and real solutions to the housing crisis.

Instead the feature of the new planning act being trumpeted is to give developers greater flexibility.

This means that there will be fewer rules covering elements such as building heights and the number of units in a development.

Greater density? Now that's hot.

One reason we're seeing so many dull, colourless, boring, and environmentally irresponsible medium and high-rise buildings in Canberra is because of the rise of the facade "industry". Our limited pool of developers love its stultifying catalogue of predesigned systems. Many choose the cheapest and most climactically inappropriate external wall systems. This is often against the advice of their architects.

More design control in the development application process, along with independently run design competitions for key sites, would help.

Who is the ACT government governing for?

Fair laws are good for us all, but how is a fine of $444 for traveling at 58km/h on a three-lane highway, not in a school zone and where traffic lights control pedestrian crossings fair?

It smacks of penalising the community to pay for an unneeded tram that very few people in the community will benefit from.

The sooner we can get a government that governs for the good of the people and not for idealistic political self interests the better.

Come on ACT Liberals; it is time that you stepped up to the plate.

The government wants to overturn the court ruling that Indigenous Australians cannot be deported, regardless of nationality. Meanwhile several Indigenous Australians are now in limbo.

To this day, many Indigenous Australians live in disadvantaged communities. They are the most imprisoned people on earth.

Despite many positive and creative initiatives by Indigenous people to set up ongoing dialogue with government, every effort has been crushed. Even the recent meticulously prepared and inspirational "Uluru Statement from the Heart' was churlishly dismissed, together with requests for constitutional recognition and perhaps even a treaty.

Meanwhile, the lands so lovingly and expertly cared for over tens of thousands of years lie neglected and unkempt, polluted or covered in concrete and brick.

Western arrogance is oblivious to the truth that their technological superiority has been nothing more than a cruel curse to Indigenous populations on five continents. This is because, unlike the traditional knowledge of Indigenous societies, western technology is not tempered by wisdom or compassion.

Let's end this persecution of our first Australians now. They have suffered enough at our hands.

So the Minister for Immigration has the power to deport a noted tennis player who had been convicted of no crime and had been issued a valid visa, but the government now claims that it has insufficient power to deport convicted criminals who might present a future risk to Australian women and children.

Seriously? If you believe that, I have shares in a bridge in Sydney I would like to sell you.

Is Glebe Park the Bermuda Triangle of unimproved land values in Canberra?

Recently we had the Integrity Commission report on a 2015 ACT government purchase of a block, zoned for a single restaurant/bar, for $4 million when the land was valued around $1 million. The commission found no evidence of corruption, leaving the transaction as just regular weird.

The block adjoining it contains Glebe Park Residences. Thanks to reporting of a $2.4 million purchase of a penthouse there we learn the unimproved value for the block is now just $1.4 million ($134 per square metre).

This block was prominent in the government's spin for unit-title surcharges in 2017 when it was valued at $6 million. Having introduced the surcharges on all unit-titled properties across the ACT it doubled the unimproved value to $12.2 million. In 2020 it then slashed it to its current value.

Does the ACT government really believe the $1.4 million valuation? Or is it just possible its quality control is so poor that a $14 million valuation has been entered into its database missing a zero? Rates forgone $120,000 a year.

It seems a little inconsequential at a time when Russia is invading, COVID-19 is spreading, and climate change is leading to massive floods in Queensland, but I must declare my disappointment at the state of the Black Mountain tourist area.

What should be a delight for visitors like me to our capital was marred by extensive weeds, broken and unkempt viewing areas, poorly maintained and overgrown paths, and rubbish strewn everywhere.

Please act soon to ensure that this important site is not entirely overrun with weeds. Every year of neglect means much more time and money in the future to restore the area.

I get the impression from your editorial "Is this war the end of the road for Putin?" (canberratimes.com.au, March 3) that the autocratic Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is scared, has the "small man" syndrome, and is paranoid about the free world taking away his undeserved power.

I also get a strong impression of incompetence under pressure. For a man who has been clever (and cunning) enough to wheedle his way into the Russian presidency to overlook something so basic as fuel supplies for his invading forces is a strong indication of sheer incompetence. Perhaps those who say "Putin is mad" are right.

Mr Morrison tested positive for COVID-19, but only with a PCR test. He had three negative results with RATs. His experience would not be unique, and tells us clearly our COVID-19 numbers are grossly underestimated. One could reasonably ask why our Prime Minister is not getting regular PCR tests (the gold standard) given his interaction with so many people.

At last there is something positive about the Prime Minister thanks to COVID-19.

The news that the PM has tested positive for COVID-19 is concerning for him and his family, as it is for all families. We all want him back and talking as his words and actions lately will help the Labor Party and many people appreciate these contributions to his term coming to an end.

What an absurd photograph in Wednesday's paper of Putin the autocrat at one end of an absurdly long table and his flunkies and minions at the other. It speaks volumes.

If Ukraine falls to Russia, Putin's eyes will turn further westward, make no mistake. Vlad the Impaler's notoriety will be eclipsed by Vlad the Inhaler's.

Medical experts agree wearing masks, particularly indoors, is an essential strategy for helping minimise the spread of COVID-19. The Chief Minister of the ACT now states it is not necessary to wear masks whilst indoors. From which Weet-Bix packet did the Chief Minister obtain his medical degree?

Comparisons are odious. Andrew Barr, comparing the ACT's alleged integrity breaches to the obvious perfidy of the higher echelons of government in NSW, demonstrates a Pharisee-like superciliousness, akin to self-absolution.

A doctor recently told me I needed a pacemaker. So I toddled off to the local athletic club and soon found some young athletes willing to be my pacemakers. As we were preparing for my first run, an old bloke quietly explained to me what a pacemaker really was, and abruptly ended my athletics career.

The Walkleys are recognition of journalist endeavour which, in the case of Pope's award, is for his quick wit translated into a cycle of brilliant political cartoons.

If and when Queen Elizabeth dies or abdicates, will that be the signal for a renewed attempt at severing our connection to the crown? If not that, what will?

We have had that many "unprecedented" events lately that, through overuse, the word's meaning has been debased.